BRIDGEPORT -- Housed in a humble, one-story, cement-block building on the city's East End is a factory that churns out an equally unassuming product, the clothesline pulley.

Once indispensable in the household, the clothesline is a strange sight in most backyards today, the victim of the popularity of clothes dryers. About three generations have passed since dryers first began to take their place beside the washing machine in American homes.

The factory, Penn Plastics, on Bishop Avenue, produces about 50,000 pairs of pulleys a year, according to Ray Pennoyer III, whose family has owned the business since the 1970s, and has produced clothesline pulleys for about 60 years.

Today, it's estimated that only about 5 percent of Americans regularly line dry their clothes, but it's a percentage that clothesline advocates say is bound to change as greater numbers of people begin to see them as a way to save money and be kinder to the planet at the same time.

"Once you have it set up, it's very convenient," Pennoyer said. "But it's discouraging -- a lot of people don't know where to go the find the pulleys, the rope and the other things you'll need to set one up."

He added that the two-pulley clothesline isn't seen much outside the Northeast.

More Information

Set up a clothesline: Here's what you'll need
-- A place in your backyard to set one up
-- A tree or a sturdy pole
-- A pair of clothesline pulleys
-- A pair of heavy-duty screw hooks
-- Sufficient clothesline rope to cover double the length on your line
-- A clothesline tightener
-- Clothespins
-- A clothespin bag
Benefits of using a clothesline
-- You'll save money
-- Your sheets will smell nice
-- You'll have a smaller carbon footprint
-- Your clothes will last longer
-- The sunlight kills bacteria on your wash
-- It's safer because there's no chance of a dryer fire
-- Clothes won't shrink
-- The physical activity will improve your health

"We had one customer whose mother was visiting from Texas. She asked her son, `What are those ropes doing in your backyard?' " said Ron Clough Jr. of Clough's Hardware in Stratford. "The son says, `That's my clothesline.' So the mother videotaped her son using it so she could show her friends, and we shipped her the line, the pulleys, everything else she needed to set one up because she couldn't buy those things in Texas."

In other parts of the nation, "rotary" (also called "umbrella") clotheslines are more popular. Or, a rope will simply be strung between two trees, although this arrangement is more labor-intensive come wash day.

Still, the vast majority of Americans never seem to grasp that there are alternatives to the dryer.

"It's amazing how many people never consider that there's any other way to dry your clothes but in a dryer," said Glen Berkowitz, executive director of Project Laundry List a group that advocates using less energy to do the wash. "When I tell people about the clothesline option, it's like a light goes on in their heads."

He said that clothesline gear needs to be sold with the same incentives as other energy-saving technology, such as insulation and more efficient light bulbs.

"Just in the six New England states, the amount of money expended to dry clothes comes to a billion dollars a year," Berkowitz said. "It's a phenomenal amount of money."

He added that only 5 percent of Americans air-dry their clothes; in just about every other industrialized nation, that figure is usually above 50 percent.

Another impediment to the clothesline is the image of the clothesline as something only for poor people.

"This is an image that we hope will change, and sooner rather than later," Berkowitz said. "Next month, Self magazine will be running a feature on movie stars who use clotheslines as part of their green campaigns. But that prejudice is there, even though there's no study other there that can claim that a clothesline next door will reduce your home value."

The right to dry

Indeed, in suburban developments, homes are sold with covenants that prevent homeowners from doing a variety of things, from keeping dogs outdoors overnight to raising livestock. And many of these suburban tract covenants written after the late 1950s restrict or forbid clotheslines.

These covenants aren't usually enforceable, unless they run afoul of other laws, area zoning officials say.

"They almost never come up," said Stratford's Planning and Zoning Administrator Gary Lorentson of covenant violations.

Lawyer Richard J. Grabowski, of Stratford, a real estate specialist, agreed. "If I had a client who wanted to put up a clothesline, and there was a covenant against it for his lot, I would tell him to go ahead and put it up."

He explained that a clothesline, unlike say, a flock of sheep, wouldn't be considered a nuisance by the court.

"Besides, chances are, a neighbor isn't going to spend a lot of money on an attorney to fight a clothesline."

Only three states, Florida, Hawaii and Utah, have strong "right to dry" legislation on the books, which limits or prohibits homeowner associations from banning clotheslines outright. Clotheslines advocates say that more states should follow suit.

Still, the freedom to dry movement, which aims to weaken or eliminate strict clothesline bans in gated communities, condominiums and elsewhere, has run up against stiff opposition from groups such as the Community Associations Institute.

In 2009, the CAI successfully beat down a proposed Connecticut pro-clothesline bill, HB 5995, that was winding its way through the state Legislature.

"It doesn't make sense for every community," said Kim McClain, who heads Connecticut's CAI chapter, of efforts to remove clothesline restrictions. "We have nothing against clotheslines, but we think it should be up to homeowner associations to review their regulations and decide whether they want them or not."

State Rep. Mat Lesser, D-Middletown, who introduced the bill, said that it's an issue that the Legislature will likely revisit again.

"It's an easy, low-cost way to greatly reduce our energy consumption, and now we're dealing with really high energy prices," he said. "We're definitely seeing a change here -- people show off their hybrid cars, and maybe clotheslines will be next."

And advocates argue that most of these anti-clothesline restrictions were written decades ago by developers who don't live in the neighborhood.

"A clothesline covenant runs with the land and they're there in perpetuity," Grabowski. "But if no one is there to enforce it, you can do whatever you want."

Some of the impediments to those who want to dry their clothes outdoors border on the absurd. In 2009, the town of Greenwich famously banned clotheslines at its senior housing apartments because of "liability" concerns. "If somebody's running through there, they could really get clothes-lined, football clothes-lined. It wouldn't be a pretty thing," said Anthony Johnson, the Housing Authority's executive director, at the time, in reference to the banned practice of knocking over a football player in a game by "straight-arming" him.

Checking to see if your home has a clothesline covenant will require a visit to your town or city hall, because it's not usually on your deed, but rather on the "declarations and bylaws" or the "protective covenants" that applies to your particular development. Your deed will tell you the volume and page of the town's real estate records where this language can be found.

There aren't any towns in Connecticut that have blanket clothesline restrictions. But some towns, such as Trumbull, North Branford, Cheshire and the aforementioned Greenwich, specifically prohibit them in their regulations for multi-unit developments, such as condominiums, co-ops, senior housing, public housing and the like. In Stratford's Oronoque Village, where even bird feeders must meet specific anti-squirrel standards, clotheslines aren't allowed.

Energy hog

Year in and year out, the clothes dryer uses more energy than every household appliance except for the refrigerator, and they're by far the most power-hungry home appliance when they're operating. They draw a whopping 20 amps (5,000 watts) of power, or as much as five or six hair dryers running full blast at the same time. It costs about 30 to 40 cents to dry a load of laundry with an electric dryer, or about $100 per year if five loads are washed during the week, on average. In terms of the total energy budget, the electric clothes dryer consumes about 10 percent of the total energy used by the household. (Gas dryers cost about half as much to operate.)

Unlike other appliances, all dryers operate at about the same efficiency, which is why you won't find one with an "Energy Star" sticker. They have a "carbon footprint" of about 2 kilograms, (or 2.2 pounds) of CO2 per load.

For Penn Plastics, it's been an uphill battle to get their products noticed. They're quick to point out that it's easy to find where the dryers are sold, but finding quality clothesline gear is another matter.

"The foreign pulleys on the market are really inferior, but it's hard to convince people to buy a pulley that will last for years," Pennoyer said. "Our pulley is really overbuilt. You can run them over with your car. But I guess a lot of people and even the big box stores don't care. And a lot of times, they only sell cheap plastic rope that doesn't work. That's what it comes down to."